[ARDF] [ardfteamusa] Welcome back

[Vadim Afonkin (Comcast)]

Once again my congrats to Nadia! Very well done! I hope next WC you can get
us a GOLD!

73!

Vadim
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charles E. Scharlau" <cscharlau at earthlink.net>
To: "Joe Moell" <Homingin at aol.com>
Cc: "Ardf at Kkn. Net" <ardf at kkn.net>; "Ardfteamusa at Yahoogroups. Com"
<ardfteamusa at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 7:50 AM
Subject: RE: [ardfteamusa] Welcome back


> Hello Joe,
>
> We got back from Bulgaria about 9PM last night. It felt like 4AM, so we
went
> straight to bed.
>
> It was unfortunate that Internet access was so restricted in Bulgaria.
They
> had one Internet room with 6 computers and two Ethernet hook-ups for
> laptops. Usually the wait for access was not very long, but we were
> restricted to 20 minutes of Internet time if others were waiting, and the
> room hours ran only until 10PM.
>
> I am very proud of Nadia's performance on both days. She was not very
> confident in her ability to compete in these championships given the
amount
> of on-the-air practice she had, and the fact that some of her competition
> was 10 years younger than she. But Nadia's performance in the 2M
> competition, in which she was only two transmit cycles from the leaders,
> convinced her that she could compete. She went into the 80M competition
> feeling more confident, and it showed.
>
> Nadia had an excellent run on 80M finding all four fox transmitters in
less
> than 65 minutes. After finding the last of the foxes she tuned to the
homing
> beacon frequency to guide her home... but the beacon was not to be heard.
> The homing beacon had failed seconds earlier, and the organizers wouldn't
> correct the problem until about 15 minutes had passed. Nadia knew
> approximately where she was on the course, but not so precisely that she
> could run the 1.4 km directly to the finish line. She wasted precious time
> tuning her receiver in search of the beacon signal, and running an
indirect
> path to the finish, finding the entrance to the finish corridor in about
15
> minutes. Nadia estimates that the non-functioning finish beacon may have
> cost her as much as 3 minutes in her overall time. The top finishers in
her
> category (none of whom was affected by the malfunctioning finish beacon)
> tended to take 10 to 12 minutes to get from the final fox to the finish
> corridor. The second place finisher completed the course just 2 minutes
and
> 20 seconds faster than Nadia's time, so the beacon malfunction likely cost
> Nadia an undisputed silver or bronze medal finish time.
>
> According to Harley and Karla, the international jury deliberated for
> several hours that evening, discussing how to rectify the unfairness
> inflicted by the failed beacon. The decision arrived at was to deduct 1
> minute and 9 seconds from Nadia's overall time, thus tying her with the
> third place finisher. Two bronze medals were awarded, and Team USA
achieved
> its first ARDF medal.
>
> It was great having my parents in attendance to cheer for Nadia at the
award
> ceremony. The entire team did an excellent job competing on two very
> difficult courses. Illness, minor injuries, and equipment mishaps took
their
> toll on Team USA, as they did on the other teams. But I believe that in
the
> end, we proved ourselves to be better prepared than at any previous
> championships. If we continue to improve, and can recruit new talent
> especially in the younger age categories, the future looks bright for Team
> USA at future world championships.
>
> 73,
> Charles E. Scharlau - NZ0I
>
> PS - For those who ran Nadia's courses she designed for the 2006 USA ARDF
> Championships, and wondered if the WC courses would really be that tough,
> Nadia has four words: "I told you so!"
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ardfteamusa at yahoogroups.com [mailto:ardfteamusa at yahoogroups.com]On
> > Behalf Of Homingin at aol.com
> > Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 2:10 PM
> > To: ardfteamusa at yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [ardfteamusa] Welcome back
> >
> >
> > Congratulations to all Team USA members for your enthusiastic
> > participation in the World Championships!  Thanks to all who sent
> > photos and updates.
> >
> > BFRA has finally posted he complete results and I am updating my
> > Web site accordingly.  I also am on deadline for CQ-VHF and ARRL
> > articles, as well as a presentation for the ARRL SW Division
> > Convention in San Diego this coming weekend.  For all of these, I
> > want to tell as much of the story of the 2006 USA and World
> > Championships as I can.  I certainly could use more photos, and I
> > would welcome the opportunity to talk to any and all of you to
> > get your stories and thoughts.  Feel free to call me in the
> > evenings after 7 PM Pacific time, or let me know when is the best
> > time to call you.
> >
> > Also, ARRL HQ hasn't received repayment checks from three of you,
> > so please take care of this as soon as you can.
> >
> > 73,
> > Joe Moell K0OV
> > (714) 879-6895
>
>
>
>
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